Читать книгу The Jewish Religion, Ethically Presented - Henry Pereira Mendes - Страница 18
ОглавлениеHOLY DAYS AND FESTIVALS.
1. There are six “Assemblies of the Lord,” or Holy Convocations. They are usually called Holydays or Festivals.
2. They are the Sabbath, the New Year and the Day of Atonement, which are called Holydays, and Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which are called Festivals.
3. Holy Days and Festivals are days on which we are to assemble for the worship of God and for instruction in holy duties.
4. All work is forbidden upon those days.
5. Amusements which fatigue the body or the mind, or which are not in keeping with the holiness of the day, must be avoided.
THE SABBATH.
1. The Sabbath begins every Friday evening and lasts until Saturday nightfall.
2. It is kept to remind us of creation and of our deliverance from Egypt.
3. When God created this earth, He stored it with everything necessary for our earthly wants: food, material for raiment, beautiful views, forms and colors. And He commanded work, because work is necessary for our happiness.
4. But man has other than earthly wants. The true man desires to know more and more about God and to learn more and more how to please Him. That is, man has spiritual wants besides material needs.
5. If we used every day for only our earthly pleasures, or to obtain only our earthly wants, we would never have the opportunity to learn about God.
6. God therefore instituted the Sabbath, first, to give us a regular day of rest from our usual worldly work, and secondly, to give us a weekly opportunity for learning about Him and what He desires from us.
7. Therefore on the Sabbath we abstain from all work and devote part of the day to special worship in private, or with our families, or preferably in a synagogue or temple.
8. It is good to worship God and to learn about Him and how we can best please Him every day. And we must do so. But the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord. On that day we should seek special instruction in the knowledge of God, the Creator, from men able to give it.
*9. The Sabbath is named as the first of the “Assembly Days” commanded by the Lord, thus implying that we are to assemble on the Sabbath for sacred purposes.
10. On other days of the week we cannot so well assemble for public worship, because worldly duties, permitted on those days, prevent us.
11. The Sabbath also reminds us of the deliverance from Egypt. We were slaves there and the labor which we had to perform was rigorous. It was hard bondage. We can therefore appreciate a restful Sabbath.
12. We were delivered from Egypt in order to be ministers of God among mankind; that is, to teach mankind by our example, as well as by our Bible. Therefore, on the Sabbath we devote time to learn about God and Duty, and how to teach mankind the truths thereof. For this reason we should listen to sermons on that day and read the Bible or other religious literature.
13. On Sabbath Eve (Friday night), the mother lights the Sabbath Lights. These are usually two, but sometimes seven. The lighting of the lamps is a sign of joy, the joy of Sabbath family-union, the joy of Sabbath evenings at home. It is the mother who can best secure this joy and she can do so by praying that the Light of God’s countenance may bless all her loved ones in her home, even as the father repeats these solemn words, when on the Sabbath Eve, he blesses his children with the blessing of God for Israel.
14. Besides blessing the children on Sabbath Eve, the father, or head of the family, pronounces the Sabbath sanctification before the evening meal (see prayer book), and he or one of the family should say aloud “grace” or “blessing” after it.
15. On the Sabbath Day we should make every effort to attend public worship.
16. In some synagogues and homes the close of Sabbath is marked by the Havdalah, or “Division Ceremony,” so called because it divides the Sabbath from the working days.
17. The object of the ceremony is to consecrate our five senses which will be used during the coming working days, and to bless God for our possession of each of them. Hence we pronounce a blessing over wine or something to taste; we smell the spices; we feel the heat of the light; we see these things, and we hear the words of benediction. Other explanations are also given.
18. We therefore begin and end the Sabbath just as we keep the whole day itself—we make it “a sign” of the relations between God and ourselves, that we may “know that He is the Lord who consecrates us.”
19. “It (the Sabbath) is holy for you” (Exod. xxxi. 14) means also that it consecrates Israel. For whoever observes the Sabbath testifies thereby to Creation and the Creator. He becomes a “witness for God” (Isa. xliii. 10), and is therefore consecrated to His service. See chapter xi. 9-16.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS.
1. Speak unto the children of Israel, and tell them the assemblies of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy Convocations, these are they, My assemblies.—Levit. xxiii, 2.
3. These are the assemblies of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.—Levit. xxiii, 4.
4. Ye shall do no work thereon.—Levit. xxiii, 3, 7, 21, 27, 28, 31, 36.
THE SABBATH.
2. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and He ceased on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it.—Exod. xx, 11.
Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day.—Deut. v, 15.
3. And the Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and take care of it.—Gen. ii, 15.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.—Exod. xx, 9.
4. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?—Psalm xlii, 2.
6. Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest and that the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed.
The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.—Exod. xx, 10.
7. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.—Isa. lxvi, 23.
13. The blessing of Israel, or Jacob, our ancestor, is:
May God make thee like Ephraim and Manasseh.—Gen. xlviii, 20.
The blessing for Israel, our people, is:
May the Lord bless thee and preserve thee;
May the Lord cause His countenance to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee;
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and grant thee peace.—Numbers vi, 24-26.
14. Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord who doth sanctify you.—Exod. xxxi, 13.
18. And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. Between Me and the children of Israel it is a sign for ever.—Exod. xxxi, 16-17.
